USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > The pioneer families of Cleveland 1796-1840 Vol. I > Part 21
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Here they lived for ten years, then built a small home on the west
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side of North Perry Street, a short walk from Euclid Ave., which from time to time received additions and improvements until it became one of the most picturesque houses in Cleveland; one so unusual and homely- looking that no passer-by with an eye for the beautiful could but pause to admire. In addition to this, Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin in their love of nature adorned the ample grounds surrounding it with a rare collection of shrubs, vines, and flowers.
Mrs. Baldwin's aunt, Pauline Skinner, wife of Nathan Perry, Jr., lived in a large rambling house set back in the grounds opposite, and closer to the street resided the latter's daughter Mrs. H. B. Payne, in a modern stone edifice. The Perry Street home of the Dudley Baldwin family lasted 53 years-over half a century. One can but muse over the scenes witnessed within the residence still standing intact with undiminished attractiveness. The hundreds of Cleveland people who enjoyed the hos- pitality it ever extended, now lying in Woodland and Lake View; 53 years of Christmas and Thanksgiving occasions when relatives gathered, and near friends bidden! Who would have believed that business and death could make such a clean sweep of the neighborhood in that vicinity, in so short a time! The Perry home occupied by strangers, that of the Paynes standing unoccupied and desolate, the commerce crowding and threatening the two sisters remaining in the old Baldwin homestead!
The children of Dudley and Henrietta Hine Baldwin:
Mary Baldwin.
Homer Baldwin, a soldier of the Civil War. He was in many great battles of that conflict; d. 1870.
Anne Weddell Baldwin, m. Lieut. I.
A. Shultz, U. S. A.
Peter Weddell Baldwin.
Henrietta Baldwin, m. Gouverneur Morris, Jr., of New York.
Dudley Baldwin, Jr.
Sherman Frick Baldwin, d. 1875.
1817
RATHBUN
Edmund Rathbun, the Revolutionary soldier buried in Harvard Grove Cemetery, and a Newburgh pioneer, must have had several sons. Ed- mund Rathbun, Junior, was one of them and Zebulon another. The com- plete list of his children cannot be obtained. The above son, Zebulon Rathbun, had a family of children born and raised in Newburgh. Their records are but partially given and the mother's maiden name not fur- nished.
Ambrose Rathbun, married Hannah
Jane Rathbun, m. Isaac Leach.
Eunice Rathbun, m. Uz Hendee. Rachel Rathbun, m. - Kapple.
Isabella Rathbun, m. Boardman Pearse. George Rathbun, m. Catherine Greenleese. Marietta Rathbun, m. Amaziah Rod- way.
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1817
PEARSE
Jonathan Pearse and his wife Lucy Scoville Pearse were married 1808, in Sudley, Vt. They removed to Newburgh hamlet in 1817. New- burgh was being settled by New England people, many of them from Vermont, who had made the long journey in ox-teams, ariving or leading a cow all the way.
Mr. Pearse paid less than four dollars an acre for his farm which was purchased of the Lord and Barber Land Co. In 1910, his son sold less than an acre of it for $3,300. The first home of the Pearse family was a log-house near the corner of the present Harvard and Independence streets. In 1821, the taxes on the 10 acres was $13.65, an amount not difficult to raise, it would seem, from a stand-point of nearly a century afterward. But at that early day, it was a hard pull to be able to meet even so small an obligation in dollars and cents, as the above sum. The "land-poor" farmers no sooner paid one year's taxes before planning and saving, sixpence at a time, so as to be ready for the next one.
The wolves were very numerous and troublesome for years following the arrival of the family in Newburgh, and their howling terrified the children until its frequency inured them to the sound and to its possible danger. During the digging of the Ohio Canal, Jonathan Pearse and the father of the late President James Garfield were associated in a con- tract to excavate part of its channel.
Mr. and Mrs. Pearse had a family of seven children to reach maturity, most of whom were born in Newburgh. They were:
Franklin Pearse, m. Theresa Wake- field.
Mary A. Pearse, m. Jesse Jennings. Removed to Indiana.
Boardman Pearse, m. Isabella Rath- bun.
Roxana Pearse, m. 1st, Daniel Ter- ry; 2nd, Henry Tuttle.
Emily Pearse, m. Richard Wright; lived in Madison, Ohio.
Boardman Pearse lived to be 90 years of age. At this date, 1913, his wife still survives him. They lived in the old homestead on Harvard Street .. Roxanna Pearse removed to Illinois soon after her first marriage. At the death of Mr. Terrill, Boardman Pearse drove all the way to the place she was living and brought her and her two children back to her father's home.
1817
JEWETT
Moses Jewett a farmer, and also a cooper by trade, was born in Hol- lis, New Hampshire.
In 1812, he married Eunice Andrews, 20 years of age, and in the year 1817 they came to Cleveland. Mr. Jewett bought a small farm on Water street, below St. Clair street, and south of Lake street. Mr. Jewett may
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have built the old log-house that stood in that vicinity after all the other pioneer landmarks had disappeared. One authority states that the fam- ily remained there nine years, and then removed to a farm in Newburgh. It was situated on Miles Ave., and a member of the family yet resides within a short distance of the old homestead site.
Moses Jewett was a prominent man in both Cleveland and Newburgh. His children intermarried with other pioneer families. The sons were well-known business men, and both sons and daughters held enviable social positions. One of the granddaughters, Miss Carrie Jewett, is a member of the Western Reserve Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution.
Moses Jewett died in 1850.
The children of Moses and Eunice Andrews Jewett:
Esther A. Jewett, b. 1813; m. Dan- forth Ruggles.
George A. Jewett, b. 1816; m. a Southern lady. He died 1843.
Lydia A. Jewett, b. 1818; died in 1823, buried in Erie Street Ceme- tery.
Alvah Jewett, b. 1821; m. Cynthia Rhodes, daughter of Oliver and Cynthia Rhodes.
Charles Porter Jewett, b. 1825; m. Adeline Adams, his step-sister.
Eunice Jewett, b. 1828; m. C. Bas- tion.
Mary Jane Jewett, b. 1830; m. John M. Burk.
Julia Towsley Jewett, b. 1833; m. Charles Davis.
1817
SHUMWAY
Jeremiah Shumway and his wife Helen Simmons from Roe, Mass., settled in East Cleveland in 1817, and the family became very prominent in that locality. The children:
Lucy Shumway, m. Samuel Bond, Elkhart, Ind.
Alvira Shumway, b. 1824; m. Eliott.
Helen Shumway, b. 1828; m. J. Loyd.
Mary Shumway, b. 1832; m. M. H. Nelson.
Loudama Shumway, b. 1838; m. Charles Foljambe.
Dewey Shumway, m. Fanny Cran- ney. Patience Shumway.
1817 JACKSON
Morris and Lucinda Sheldon Jackson of Ludlow, N. Y., arrived in Cleveland in 1817. They were 22 days coming by way of horses and a wagon. The family eventually settled on a farm in Newburgh, but Morris Jackson, from time to time, engaged in other pursuits than farm-
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ing. His children were all men and women of strong personality, men- tally and physically, and made their presence felt in the community in which they lived. Their two sons lived to be very aged, and one of the daughters was over 90 years of age at her death. The family resided in Newburgh several years, but although all the daughters married in that burg, but two of them remained there afterwards.
The children of Morris and Lucinda Sheldon Jackson :
Tower Jackson, m. Sarah Clock of Monroeville, O .; 2nd, Lucy But- ton.
Morris Jackson, Jr., m. 1st, Alice Brown of Black River; 2nd, Lucy Miles; 3rd, Flora Shepard.
Ruth Jackson, m. 1st, Reuben Drake; 2nd, Youngs L. Morgan, Jr.
Juliette Jackson, m. Alphonso Hol- ly, son of the pioneers Ezekiel and
Lucy Carter Holly or Hawley.
Nancy Jackson, m. Buell Jones, a ship-builder, who removed to Buf- falo, N. Y.
Harriet Jackson, m. Elijah Clock of Monroeville, O., brother of Sarah Clock Jackson.
Chloe Jackson, m. Ely Colt of New York City. Ely Colt lived in Cleveland in the '30s.
Morris Jackson, Jr., lived on a farm on Detroit street some years previous to his death; a farm now of great value as building property. Tower Jackson lived in Huron, Ohio, and died there at a great age. Juliette Jackson Hawley lived all her life on Broadway near the city limits. She died aged 90, at the residence of her son in the East End.
1817
RATHBUN
There were several families of Rathbun in Cuyahoga Co. in the very early days of its organization. They were all related, the heads of each family being either brother or cousin of the others.
Edmund Rathbun was originally from Rhode Island. His parents moved to Massachusetts, and a little later to Livingston Co., N. Y. In 1817, he came to the city, settling on Harvard Street. It cannot be learned if the parents came also. But, two years later, Edmund married Julia Hamilton.
Four children were born to them, Alvin, Caroline, Melinda, and Lydia Rathbun.
Edmund Rathbun and his wife both died in 1881 at the age of 87 years.
George and Jonathan Rathbun, brothers of Edmund, also came to Newburgh, but later moved with their families to Euclid and Orange.
Mrs. George Rathbun was Miss Harriet Warren before her marriage. They came to Newburgh in 1817, and settled on Harvard street, where, in time, there were eight families of the name.
George Rathbun had three daughters and a son.
195
Doan Tavern run by S. C. Boldwin.
Log school-house.
Fairmount Street.
Judge John H. Strong.
* Ahimaaz Sherwin, Sr.
* Ahimaaz Sherwin, Jr.
Streator Ave. now.
Now Bolton Ave.
Shadrack[- Husted.
James Cole. Hatch lives here now.
Cardy Parker.
John Bunce.
Now Madison Ave.
Now Spangler Ave.
Tillisson.
Euclid Road between Willson and Fairmount in year 1818.
Now Lincoln Ave.
Timothy Watkins.
Block house for refuge. Owned by Walter Strong.
Now Dunham.
John Riddle.
E. 55th St.
Willson Ave.
John A. Willard. 2nd William Temple.
Smith Towner. Now Kennard St.
MAP DRAWN BY GEORGE WATKINS.
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1818
SPRAGUE
In January of this year, the leading merchants in town refused to accept any individual script and a notice to that effect was printed in the first issue of the first Cleveland newspaper.
The names signed to it are of interest, as it establishes a date when each was a resident of the village.
J. I and Irad Kelley,
Nathan Perry,
Luther Chapin,
Daniel Kelley,
Phineas Shepard,
William Garford,
Thomas Rummage,
Henry Mowry,
George Pease,
George Wallace,
S. Nechley,
David James,
Amasa Bailey,
Cullen Richmond,
Leonard Case,
George G. Hill,
Cyrus Prentice,
George Perkham,
James Hyndman.
Population of Cleveland village, 74.
Superior Street yet not much more than a lane.
Caleb Eddy of East Cleveland died this year aged 64 years. His wife Nancy Blinn Eddy died in 1838 aged 77.
Eddy Road was named for this family.
1818
SPRAGUE.
When Ara Sprague entered the village of Cleveland on an April day in 1818, he found its population had just been counted. Men, women, and children, all told, numbered but 172 souls.
His first impression of the town, according to his testimony given years afterward, was far from favorable. He found every family in it poor and struggling to make a living. Only a few acres of ground had been cleared of the scrub oaks that had covered them, and the forest pressed closely in upon these. Rail fences enclosed the few houses that straggled along Superior street from Bank street to the river. There
was no St. Clair street then. Lake street possessed but one house-a log one-and there were perhaps half a dozen on Water street.
The nickels and pennies that in the present day are so plentiful and convenient would have been hailed with delight in that early one when small change was entirely lacking, and shin-plasters, issued by the small corporation, the only means of exchange.
Mr. Sprague tells us that passage from Buffalo to Cleveland when taken on a vessel was $10, but to the traveler who came by steamboat "Walk-in-the-Water," it cost twice that sum. There was a land route, however, one very popular with the impecunious, and those who trav- eled its weary length were often conveyed by "Shank's Mare."
Ara Sprague was one of a family of four sons and five daughters, all
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SPRAGUE
Massachusetts born, some in Spencer, and others in Worcester. The parents were Ara and Martha Wilson Sprague. Ara was 28 years old when he came west. Ten years previous, he was at Ogdensburg; a youthful cor- poral shouldering his musket in the War of 1812. He belonged to a com- pany similar to our present "Ohio National Guards," and one morning, the alarm-gun notified Ogdensburg that the British were marching toward it on the ice of the St. Lawrence River. The young militia was caught unaware. It was Sunday morning, and most of them were making their toilets, some bathing, others shaving, etc. Those who had just donned clean shirts did not stop to tuck them in, and the barefooted ones slipped on their shoes without stockings and rushed out in the snow, guns in hand, to meet the invaders. Many were bareheaded.
Whether the sight of this motley crew was over much for British courage, or that the enemy had not any of the time included Ogdensburg in its marching plans, is not stated. But the redcoats landed on the oppo- site side-on Canadian shores. But the militia had proven its valor.
Otis Sprague, a younger brother, was also an Ohio pioneer. He set- tled in Erie County, where he died after a long and honorable life. He was the father of Gen. John W. Sprague, a Civil War veteran and rail- road president. He lived in Huron, Ohio, and Tacoma, Washington.
Ara Sprague seems to have made himself useful to Cleveland village from the start. He set out the elms that grew to such stateliness in the Public Square, and which only in late years succumbed to coal-smoke and disease. In 1819, he married Almira Burgess, daughter of Almon Burgess, the well-known pioneer, and sister of Leonard and Solon Bur- gess the wholesale grocers. She was, like her mother, a most estimable woman, devoted to her family. She died comparatively young, leaving two children.
George Sprague, m. Minerva Fauts. Martha Sprague, m. W. W. Dingley.
For many years a large commission and wholesale grocery store on Merwin street, the river side, bore the sign "George Sprague." His son William Sprague resides in the city with his family of five children.
During the epidemic of typhoid fever that followed the opening of the canal in 1827, Ara Sprague seems to have been a ministering angel in the homes visited by sickness and death. For two months he gave him- self and his services to those afflicted with the disease. Almost every one in town was ill. Sometimes a whole household stricken with no one to nurse them or give even a drink of water to the sufferers. The scourge was not confined to the village. Doan's Corners, Newburgh, and even as far as Euclid, were visited by it, and many were the deaths that fol- lowed. Seventeen died in Cleveland within the two months that the fever raged.
In some cases there were babes whose mothers were too ill to nurse them, and these Mr. Sprague carried to and fro from their homes to those of women who could furnish sustenance to the little ones. Mr. Sprague's untiring administrations to the stricken town won the affec- tion and gratitude of that generation, and the admiration and apprecia- tion of all succeeding ones.
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JANES
Some time after the death of his wife, he married secondly, Miss Dinah Munger, a remarkable woman who lived to be 101 years of age. When she died in Chicago, Ill., June 6, 1910, the local papers gave much space in notices of the event and detail of her long and eventful life. Her patriotic line of ancestry included every struggle her country engaged in from the French and Indian War until peace was declared at the close of the Civil War, and a grandson served in Cuba.
She was an enthusiastic member of Forest City Post, G. A. R. Relief Corps, and upon her removal to Chicago was tendered a reception in her honor at the residence of the late Dr. H. W. Kitchen, at which time her photograph was taken, surrounded by floral offerings of affection and respect.
She had one daughter, the late Mrs. Almira Gill, a lovely woman whose death was mourned by many friends.
1818 JANES
No family of the East End, except perhaps the Doans and Strongs, has been so long identified with that part of Cleveland as the Janes fam- ily. The founder of this western branch was Obidiah Janes, born 1759. His parents were Deacon Ebenezer and Sarah Field Janes of North- field, Vt.
Obidiah Janes came to Ohio in 1818, and purchased a farm on Euclid Road west of Doan Street, now East 105th. He brought with him a large family of children. He had been married twice. His first wife was Polly Oliver, daughter of John Oliver. His second wife was Harmony Bingham. She accompanied him to Cleveland and died five years later.
Mr. Janes was nearly 60 years old when he left his old home in Ver- mont and settled in a wilderness at the East End. The venture, doubt- less, was for the future and material welfare of his children, rather than for his own possible benefit. He was a short, stocky man, of sturdy physique. It is claimed that shortly after coming here he walked every foot of the way back to his former home in Vermont, and returned in the same manner.
The children of Obidiah Janes and of his wives Polly Oliver and Harmony Bingham Janes :
Polly Janes, b. 1787; m. Joel Doo- little.
Jabez Janes, died 24 years of age.
Malinda Janes, m. Otis Munn; 2nd, Samuel Chapin.
Oliver Janes, m. Hannah Clement.
Harmony Janes, m. Adolphus Har- ley.
Naomi Janes, m. William Mitchell. Laura Janes, died aged 34; unmar- ried.
Lucretia Janes, m. Solomon Dunton. Alonzo Janes, m. Ann Disbro; 2nd, Harriet Converse.
Sophia Janes, m. Asbury Sabine. Harris Janes, m. Julia King.
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1818
TURNER
Oliver Janes was in the nursery business for many years, and his sons continued it after his death. His nurseries were situated near East Madison Ave., now East 79th Street. He had nine children, but only three lived to maturity.
They were:
Lorenzo Janes, b. 1822; m. Abigail Harris Janes, m. Celia De Wolf.
Nichols. Harmony Janes, m. Ira Bristol.
Mary Janes, m. Isaac C. Warren.
1818 SHAFFER
Died, Betsey Shaffer, wife of Abraham Williams, March 18, aged 18 years. (Erie Street Cemetery.)
Elizabeth Wickham, wife of Abner or Asher Wickham. (Stone near main entrance of Erie Street Cemetery. Inscription nearly obliterated.)
1818 TURNER
Abraham Turner of Hebron, N. Y., was 35 years old when he re- moved to Newburgh and became one of its earliest settlers. His wife, whom he married in 1808, was Susannah Gibbs, daughter of Hiram Gibbs a Continental soldier of 1776. Several of Hiram Gibbs' brothers also served in the Revolutionary army.
Abraham Turner was a farmer of Newburgh and of Independence Township, and well known throughout the county. Besides his own fam- ily of children, he is said to have adopted and tenderly cared for several orphans, which speaks well for him and his good wife. But a list of his sons and daughters cannot be secured from any of their descendants, although several are said to live in the county.
1818 SHERWIN
On the morning of a bitter winter day in February, 1818, a large sleigh drawn by two farm horses moved briskly in a south-western direc- tion from Middlebury, Vermont, a town but a few miles east of the New York state line, and about half-way between lakes Champlain and George.
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1818
SHERWIN
The seat of this sleigh was occupied by Ahimaz Sherwin, Jr., 26 years of age, his young wife Hannah Swan Sherwin, and their little daughter Lucy but a few months old. The back of the sleigh was piled high with household furniture, bedding, and clothing. The family had started in mid-winter on a ride of 500 miles, at least half of which led through a trackless wilderness. But, aside from the weather, traveling at this time of year was far easier than through the summer months. A sleigh moved over the snow more smoothly and with less jolting than a wagon, also over ice-bound lakes and rivers that otherwise would have to be forded or avoided.
The sleighing was excellent all the way, but the weather very severe; the thermometer for ten days of the trip was below zero. Their food and shelter for the night was ever uncertain, and a source of anxiety, for it depended upon little country taverns, or upon the hospitality of isolated farm-houses. It is ever a mystery to the woman of today how a mother managed to care for a babe and keep it warm on such a long, cold jour- ney. The case of little Lucy Sherwin was not exceptional. Hundreds of very young children accompanied their parents to the wilds of Ohio when the journey was undertaken in the winter or early spring with the frost yet in the air, and snow still covering the ground. Furthermore, in- stances have been given where the pioneer party waited for an expected addition of a little stranger in a family, and then started on a trip two weeks after its arrival.
The Sherwins made the distance between Buffalo and Dunkirk on the frozen shores of Lake Erie, and, early in the evening of one day, their sleigh broke through the ice, thoroughly drenching its occupants. With their clothes frozen upon them, they had to continue their journey until a place was reached in which they could spend the night.
The deep-seated cold that resulted from this mishap eventually under- mined the constitution of the intrepid wife and mother, and although she lived several years after reaching Cleveland she never was again well, and died leaving three young children.
The journey ended March 1st-18 days from the time it was started. No accommodation for them and their horses could be secured in the small village of Cleveland, and they had to turn around again and go back as far as Job Doan's tavern at Doan's Corners.
Luckily for Mr. Sherwin, Richard Blinn had begun to build a new house on his farm south of Doan's Corners, and on the road to Newburgh. He hired Mr. Sherwin to do the carpenter work on it, the Sherwins, mean- while, living with the Blinn family. By the last of August, the house was finished, and the wages due Mr. Sherwin enabled him to return to Ver- mont and bring on his parents to share his pioneer home. They were Ahimaaz Sherwin, Sr., who had served his country in the War of the American Revolution, and Ruth Day Sherwin, his wife. They had been married 38 years, had had a family of ten children, and were both nearly 60 years of age when they left their Vermont home to seek another in the woods east of Fairmount Street. Ahimaaz and Ruth Sherwin were mar- ried in 1780.
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Their children :
Asa Sherwin, b. 1781; married, had two children. He died 1817.
Sarah Sherwin, b. 1783; m. Henry Sumner. She died 1827.
Ruth Sherwin, b. 1785; m. Levi Billings. She died 1830. He mar- ried 2nd, Sophia Cody. Betsey Sherwin, b. 1787; m. 1st, Nutting; 2nd,
Achsa Sherwin, b. 1789; m. John Gardner.
Ahimaaz Sherwin, Jr., b. 1792; m.
1st, Hannah Swan; 2nd, Sarah M. King.
Poplin Sherwin, b. 1794; m. Jesse Harris. She died 1830.
Delphia Sherwin, b. 1796; m. Will- iam Hudson. She died 1880.
Phila Sherwin, b. 1798; m. Andrew Logan, editor of "Davenport, Iowa, News."
Benjamin Sherwin, b, 1801; died young.
It will be noticed, by the above, that there were seven married daugh- ters in the family. Some of these were wives before coming to Ohio, others were married in Cleveland, but all lived here, and three of them died within 12 years of their arrival and were buried here, Sarah in 1827, Ruth and Poplin in 1830. Achsa Sherwin, as the wife of John Gardner, a well-known Cleveland merchant, spent the rest of a long life in Cleveland. Ahimaaz Sherwin, Jr., his parents, and two of his sisters made the trip from Vermont to Cleveland in the early autumn of 1818, with two horses and a wagon. When the party reached Buffalo, it divided, the elderly couple continuing their journey by team, and the son and daughters by the lake. They took passage on the sloop Huntington, commanded by Capt. Day of Black River. Storms made it a long and perilous trip that lasted a week, and they were very glad to climb down out of the vessel into a lighter that came out from Cleveland to take them into the river. It landed them at the foot of Superior Street hill.
It is said that they took the "Foot & Walker" line to reach Doan's Corners, their objective point, over four miles distant. But it was an interesting walk that led through woods ablaze with autumnal tints, and the air filled with the sound of dropping nuts. They reached Doan's Corners just as their parents drove in from the east.
Ahimaaz Sherwin, Jr., purchased 15 acres of Judge John H. Strong on the corner of Euclid Ave. and East 96th Street, the site of the present Congregational Church, where he built a house in which his parents lived until their death. He also built a home for himself on the Blinn farm, and afterward one on Fairmount street. He was a skilled carpenter, and in the course of his long and useful life in the city, finished the in- teriors of many fine houses and hotels, within the former boundaries of Cleveland.
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